The Pit-Prop Syndicate
Freeman Wills Crofts blends mystery with adventure in this 1922 novel, which begins with a small oddity that refuses to sit still in the mind. On a business trip near Bordeaux, wine merchant Seymour Merriman watches a lorry belonging to a pit-prop firm quietly swap its number plates, and the more he and his friend Hilliard poke at the company that ships mining timber from France to England, the less innocent it looks. What starts as amateur snooping grows into a full criminal investigation, and Scotland Yard is eventually drawn in to expose what the syndicate is really moving. A free PDF and EPUB edition is available here.
About the Author
Freeman Wills Crofts (1879-1957) was an Irish-born railway engineer who began writing detective fiction while recovering from a long illness. A founding member of the Detection Club, he became a mainstay of the Golden Age and is best remembered for the methodical Inspector French.
See all books by Freeman Wills Crofts →
Listen to The Pit-Prop Syndicate Audiobook Free
Listen to The Pit-Prop Syndicate by Freeman Wills Crofts free online. The full audiobook (8 hr 47 min, 20 chapters, read by KHand) streams free on this page.
This audiobook recording is in the public domain.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Sawmill on the Lesque | 22:58 | |
| 2 | An Interesting Suggestion | 21:47 | |
| 3 | The Start of the Cruise | 25:22 | |
| 4 | A Commercial Proposition | 26:31 | |
| 5 | The Visit of the "Girondin" | 29:51 | |
| 6 | A Change of Venue | 22:28 | |
| 7 | The Ferriby Depot | 20:11 | |
| 8 | The Unloading of the "Girondin" | 22:32 | |
| 9 | The Second Cargo | 38:12 | |
| 10 | Merriman Becomes Desperate | 26:06 | |
| 11 | An Unexpected Ally | 37:39 | |
| 12 | Murder! | 20:26 | |
| 13 | A Promising Clue | 19:17 | |
| 14 | A Mystifying Discovery | 28:42 | |
| 15 | Inspector Willis Listens In | 22:24 | |
| 16 | The Secret of the Syndicate | 24:13 | |
| 17 | "Archer Plants Stuff" | 32:19 | |
| 18 | The Bordeaux Lorries | 24:34 | |
| 19 | Willis Spreads His Net | 34:23 | |
| 20 | The Double Cross | 27:17 |
Prefer reading? Read The Pit-Prop Syndicate online free or download the PDF and EPUB above.
